“Bathroom Sink” in Simon Hucko’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.
And the Ship Sails On
By Joel Brouwer
He faced the sink, one foot up
on the edge of the tub. She stood
behind him, reaching around.
In the mirror, her face rose
over his shoulder like the moon,
and like the moon she regarded him
beautifully but without feeling,
and he looked at [...]

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Trying to choose a poem for the 4th of July weekend, I realized just how much of my favorite poetry is about America either implicitly or explicitly.  Picking one for this weekend, I thought about re-posting one of those older ones.  But then, I came across this poem from Miller Williams and it just sums [...]

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I Like Americans
Edna St. Vincent Millay
I like Americans.
You may say what you will, they are the nicest people in the world.
They sleep with their windows open.
Their bathtubs are never dry.
They are not grown up yet. They still believe in Santa Claus.
They are terribly in earnest.
But they laugh at everything…
I like Americans.
They give the matches free…
I [...]

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Mark Twain left a comment about Huckleberry Finn, in his copy of The Pen and the Book by Walter Besant.
Image via the New York Times.
I discovered this poem after reading an interesting piece in the New York Times, “Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Marginalia.”  Although I do not agree with some of the author’s [...]

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I run my first ever marathon this Sunday morning and will be away from this space for a few days.  Please, wish me luck, strong legs, and a good hip on Sunday morning.  I think I’m ready, but good heavens this is a big scary thing I decided to do.

“Jogging” in Emanuel Leanza’s Flickr Stream.
Licensed [...]

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A Glimpse
by Walt Whitman
A glimpse through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,
Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the [...]

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Happy Thanksgiving, friends.  It means so much to me that you stop by my (teeny, tiny) corner of the Internet.  Today, I’m revisiting a favorite poem– “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo.  It’s such a beautiful summation of why we’re drawn to family gatherings (biological or made) around warm bread and good wine.
I [...]

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“Theater Audience” in Timm Suess’ Flickr Stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.
Wish me luck on the GREs this weekend…
Quiz
by Linh Dinh
Invaders invariably call themselves:
a) berserkers
b) marauders
c) frankincense
d) liberators
Our enemies hate us because:
a) we’re sadists
b) we’re hypocrites
c) we shafted them
d) we value freedom
Our friends hate us because:
a) we’re bullies
b) we hate them
c) we’re hypocrites
d) we value freedom
Pushed [...]

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“Balloon String” in Micah A. Ponce’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

A Theory of Everything
by Mary Crockett Hill
It has something to do with invisible string
rippling out across a universal sunset,
wrapping us up like the perfect brown corded package.
Something to do with the vibration of stars—
how they flicker in tune with each other, humming cosmically.
And though [...]

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Please remember to vote on Tuesday!  Find your polling place here…

I Am the People, the Mob
Carl Sandburg
I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses [...]

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